Today we took in the Egyptian Museum for the second time. Apparently, the government is building a new museum, set to open in 2017. I can't wait! The Egyptian Museum is set up in the classic 1920s style of curation - there is none! You have to understand, the museum also has so many things that the 'junk' it doesn't want is just sitting in the courtyard. Inside the museum, the curators have just organised items based upon time period and each item is accompanied with a short-basic typewriter written blurb about it. Halas (as they say in Egypt), which means, 'that's it' or 'finished.'
Pallavi and I went to the museum in 2012. We remember seeing King Tut, the mummies of Seti I and Ramses II, and not finishing the whole museum. As we entered the museum for the second time, I swear we didn't remember any more than we had the last time we went. We didn't remember the museum had experienced a break in in 2011 and then had artifacts returned in 2012. We didn't remember have of the stuff we had seen before (and we went the same route this time). Plus, after two times, we still didn't even finish the museum!
Tragically, the curates had temporarily removed the infamous King Tut mask from display for restoration purposes. What a shame Pallavi's family didn't get a chance to see it.
To go back to the thought about the new museum, I cannot wait to see what (fingers crossed) state-of-the-art museum this one can turn into. If it provided an audio headset tour, I know for certain I wouldn't finish the museum, but I would try my darnedest to listen to every single number.
We called the day quite early in the afternoon, after finding this famous koshari place that Heba had taken us to in 2012 for lunch. We had to catch our train at 8:00 p.m. and wanted to get home in time to spend time with Heba and Nayeli, chance, and then get our overnight train to Luxor.
That's what we thought. We got into the cab at 6:30, went to show the cabbie the ticket, so he could read the Arabic and confirm he knew the destination for our cab, and only then did Pallavi notice what I had not. The ticket time showed 22:00. That's right. 8:00 p.m. is 20:00 NOT 22:00. 22:00 is 10:00 p.m. After checking the tickets 15 times in various locations, we confirmed that indeed, I had again pulled a Sarah and we asked the cab to turn around and drive us back. Might as well use that extra time to relax with our friends before we head off to Luxor.
Pallavi and I went to the museum in 2012. We remember seeing King Tut, the mummies of Seti I and Ramses II, and not finishing the whole museum. As we entered the museum for the second time, I swear we didn't remember any more than we had the last time we went. We didn't remember the museum had experienced a break in in 2011 and then had artifacts returned in 2012. We didn't remember have of the stuff we had seen before (and we went the same route this time). Plus, after two times, we still didn't even finish the museum!
Tragically, the curates had temporarily removed the infamous King Tut mask from display for restoration purposes. What a shame Pallavi's family didn't get a chance to see it.
To go back to the thought about the new museum, I cannot wait to see what (fingers crossed) state-of-the-art museum this one can turn into. If it provided an audio headset tour, I know for certain I wouldn't finish the museum, but I would try my darnedest to listen to every single number.
We called the day quite early in the afternoon, after finding this famous koshari place that Heba had taken us to in 2012 for lunch. We had to catch our train at 8:00 p.m. and wanted to get home in time to spend time with Heba and Nayeli, chance, and then get our overnight train to Luxor.
That's what we thought. We got into the cab at 6:30, went to show the cabbie the ticket, so he could read the Arabic and confirm he knew the destination for our cab, and only then did Pallavi notice what I had not. The ticket time showed 22:00. That's right. 8:00 p.m. is 20:00 NOT 22:00. 22:00 is 10:00 p.m. After checking the tickets 15 times in various locations, we confirmed that indeed, I had again pulled a Sarah and we asked the cab to turn around and drive us back. Might as well use that extra time to relax with our friends before we head off to Luxor.
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